Whoa

So. It's been nearly 7 months since I last posted. I (think I) will not try to do some major recap or anything, because that would probably be mostly for me? Many of you know bits and pieces of the last 7 months of my life through the FB, Instagram, seeing me, etc. You readers who may still have this pop up on your bloglist have had your own wonderful, awful, and/or average life things happen over these past months.

....

I started this post a couple of days ago, but didn't know where else to go with it. The title was actually in reference to the 7 months since the last post. I am inspired to post it and a random hodge podge of things though, because I found out on the ever trusty face book that my most faithful commentor, Ron, passed away at work yesterday. I never asked how Ron found my blog, but it was likely from my early days of blogging when I would wander around blogland reading and commenting. Once, I posted about being googleable, and Ron was up to the challenge and ended up tracking me down on the face book. My ex thought it was weird Ron and I were friends on FB (but NOT that my other ex kept trying to stay in touch with me). I never met him in real life despite driving back and forth near his homebase several times. He was always ready with an obviously ridiculous comment on posts on the FB, and kind in blogland. He struggled with his life, but was a good person.

It is strange, because I lost my last living grandparent in the spring right before my birthday, but was not inspired to post about that loss. To be fair, I have thought of posting many, MANY times in these seven months, so maybe I will just start working through thoughts of race, relationships, academia, etc.?

In the meantime, I have recommitted to running, or at least am trying. Also eating more fruits and vegetables and less carbs. I am trying to be at least active in an intentional way every day starting last week (although on Saturday I got a mani-pedi instead...) and be aware of what I am eating (logging everything for 7 days to truly see if I eat the way I think I do).

I will leave you with some recipes I have tried recently that are TOTAL wins:

Earl-grey tea cake with rhubarb cream cheese icing I made to watch the last couple of episodes of Outlander with friends...who ended up canceling because they needed to finish packing for their impending trips to Europe. For the record, I brought it to work and did not eat it all myself!

Coconut raspberry dark chocolate muffins that happen to be vegan, paleo, low-carb, and grain free. A coworker picked me two pints of raspberries (and blueberries!), so I was using a handful of them up.

A delicious banana bread recipe I made vegan (by substituting "flax egg" for real egg) and roasted the bananas for because they were not very ripe. This one I made vegan because one of my summer research students is vegan and had her wisdom teeth out last week, so I promised to bake something she could eat before that happened. The cranberries were a surprisingly good touch!

Last, but not least, a zucchini crust for a "pizza". There is a comment that it is "quiche-like", which I would buy. It comes out a little floppy, but relatively sturdy to hold stuff up. Obviously if you were to dare to attempt feed this to children you should NOT use the word "pizza", because pizza it is not. I actually made it with summer squash that the same coworker who donated the raspberries brought in for me. I also used two eggs instead of egg substitute and then added a tablespoon of flax meal and did not use the suggested toppings. If you have seen any of my recipe posts, you will know that I frequently mess around with recipes though....

....

So thanks, Ron, for inspiring me in your absence to post again. Sorry there was not any bacon in the recipes...although that would be tasty on the "pizza"! I'll be interested to see if you entrusted someone to take down your blog when you were gone...

Maybe I'll keep up the blogging....

(...or maybe just reposting links to old posts I never want to forget.)

A little dinner, a little breakfast

I have been trying to cook instead of snacking or cooking frozen food (but who doesn't love Trader Joe's frozen dumplings???). Above is hot and sour soup that I have made before. I did not have corn starch or white pepper, so flour and black pepper it was. It was still delicious, and Bill has requested I make it when he gets back from a work trip. That great fabric under my bowl is a a fabric bowl my friend's mom made and sent me. You can microwave your food sitting right in the fabric bowl and then take out without burning yourself!

Today was a snow day, so I made some pumpkin oatmeal muffins (and also snacked incessantly throughout the day - see above problem with snacking). It would not be a cooking post if I did not change the recipe, right? For these I used up coconut milk I had opened to make a chicken coconut lime mushroom peanut curry last week (that is pretty much the ingredient list from the curry - it was delicious). I also added some walnuts and mini chocolate chips to empty some stuff out. They were also delicious. As was the curry I made last week. Oh, and the pumpkin was left over from some pumpkin spice muffins I made for my early class last week. They see me early almost every day and are usually all on time, so I bribed thanked them with muffins.

Now what?

I think I have a fun hangover. (And I do mean fun hangover, not an actual hangover.) I managed to get my butt out of bed and run yesterday before going wine tasting. Then went wine tasting for several hours just outside of the city, mostly on lovely back roads with great fall views, with some planned stops and unplanned stops. We were talking about food earlier in the day and I mentioned how I had picked up stuff to make ravioli the night before, but hadn't actually made them. We were vaguely talking about dinner plans on the way back to my place, so I said we could just make ravioli. So we did - squash, gorgonzola, pine nut ravioli with garlic butter (from scratch, but cheating by using wonton wrappers). Delicious.

Now I have to see about the red wine I spilled on my cream colored carpet after BIL guy left, figure out my errands for the day, grade some lab reports...I want to have another fun day though?!

A girl's gotta eat

I am trying to slowly get back in the habit of really cooking again. Yesterday I whipped up this pumpkin-kale lasagna, and it is pretty darn good. I used canned pumpkin and some sharp cheese instead of the provolone. Kale and pumpkin both have distinctive flavors, so I like the stronger cheese.

Favorite breakfast = awesome dinner

I am heading out of town tomorrow for what will be a great wedding/mini college reunion, and I get to see my sister and her family too! As a result of traveling though, I have random food in the house with no clear meal plan for a few days. Last night, I did something brilliant.

I thawed apple cider that was in the freezer since the fall. I think I will always freeze a little for a treat other times in the year now!

I mixed the apple cider with some vanilla vodka and cinnamon.

I made french toast with some yummy thick sliced whole grain bread and put butter and real maple syrup on it.

Then I sat on my porch and had breakfast for dinner.

(Note: Favorite breakfast = delicious french toast, not vanilla vodka.)

Pizza/cheese bread-like

I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge for a while. I have no idea why I bought it, but decided to try a couple of recipes in which cauliflower makes the "bread". I thawed some of the tomato sauce I made in my crockpot at the end of last summer, and it was a lovely compliment to this delicious cheese "bread" recipe and this cauliflower crust "pizza".

With the pizza crust, I used two egg whites and added some flax meal.

Both recipes are pretty easy, and while the cauliflower is cooking, you can cook other things and clean up. The crust is surprisingly sturdy to toppings! It is a little bendy, but if you basically put one layer of (mixed) toppings, and slice it in smaller sized pieces, you can definitely pick it up. I also tried a flax crust a while back. Apparently I liked the flax better. It probably held more. The cauliflower crust is certainly more cost effective though.

[And looky here...Apparently I have made a cauliflower pizza crust before and enjoyed it. I did not follow my advice to go light on the toppings previously though! Also, looks like I made it on a pizza stone before, but cooking it on a metal pan with parchment paper (sprayed with olive oil) is the way to go.]

Asian cucumber salad, et al.

In case you haven't heard, people often put their best face forward on the internet. I have certainly posted the less positive happenings in my life, but when it comes to things I have made in the kitchen, I keep it purely to the success stories. Here are some recent ones.

My new favorite way to eat cucumbers. I julienne them with the mandoline I got for Christmas. Then I add some garlic roasted sesame seeds (I bought them this way, I don't roast my own sesame seeds), rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and a dab of Sriracha for spice...oh, and some chopped green onions if you have them. I loooooove me some sesame.

It is cucumber spaghetti! Come to think of it, that might be a fun silly way to cut cucumbers for kids old enough to chew their food adequately...

Do not worry - I evened out the healthiness with a bacon wrapped filet because, well, they are only a few dollars at Aldis. It was delicious.

Other successes that are making it more difficult to fit back into my skinny pants...

Guinness brownies and Chai spiced blondies.

It's what's for dinner...and dessert...and transportation...

I realized today that I have had a good amount of time for myself, as evidenced by how much real cooking I have been doing. There have been soups and quiches and carrot cake waffles and chocolate muffins and other yummy things. I even made double-decker Knox blocks (with just grape juice, gelatin, and cream) to bring to work. Who remembers those???


Between yesterday and today, I made these easy and delicious potatoes. I put sliced leeks in the cuts and grated parmesan on top after the potatoes had cooked ~30 minutes.

And this turkey and roasted red pepper meatloaf.

I did not follow the recipe or photograph it well, but it is still delicious. I mixed ground turkey and ground beef I had in the freezer, added dry parsley and chopped red chard, and used cooked brown rice instead of bread. Otherwise, I followed the recipe.

For dessert are Chai Spiced Blondies. If you make them, you will not be sorry.

Oh. And I bought this. It is the new Ford C-Max hybrid - basically their competition for the bigger Prius V. Given that my old car was a 2001 Jetta with a manual transmission, manual windows, and no cruise control, I feel pretty fancy and grown up right now.

A couple of easy meals

This weekend, I think I have made enough food to get me through the whole week - benefit of cooking for one!

When I have vegetable scraps, I stick them in a gallon freezer bag in the freezer. The bag was getting pretty full, so I made vegetable broth in my crock pot yesterday. Some garlic cloves, some pepper corns, some rosemary, a bag full of scraps (carrot ends, celery that wasn't crunchy, kale stems, etc.), cover with water and cook on low for 8 hours. I got about 12 cups of delicious broth.

 Then I used a lot of it to make home-made hot and sour soup. I forget that I actually like tofu, as in when I was cubing it for the soup I ate some plain and liked it. This is probably the result of a year of eating in China. The soup is actually pretty close to what a restaurant's hot and sour soup tastes like! I could probably increase the flavorings to get it closer, and I used black pepper because I do not have white pepper.

 THEN, I finally made quinoa "mac" n' cheese. It always sounded like a good alternative to using pasta. I ate the soup for dinner, but I tasted the corner of this to make sure it tasted okay. It tastes amazing. I followed the recipe I linked to, but just grated a bunch of cheese without measuring and added some veggies: chopped collard greens, grated zucchini I had in the freezer (just added it to the quinoa while it cooked and counted it as a liquid...because that is what happens when you freeze zucchini), some carrot (I used the peeler to "cut" it into thin strips).

I am looking forward to eating this week. I keep avoiding the lettuce in my fridge, though, so maybe some tuna salad wraps will be added to the above menu.

Sausage tortellini soup

I have done it again. I went and made soup on a Sunday. And it is good.

 My old neighbor was supposed to come over for lunch today. She never showed up and did not answer my call when I tried to get in touch with her. I went ahead and ate some of this soup by myself. Hopefully she will get back to me so we can reschedule. I am not going to lie though, I am a little happy I get this all to myself for a few days.

Sausage Tortellini Soup
Inspired by a Kroger coupon/recipe mailing

1 pkg chicken sausage
garlic, chopped
onion, chopped
red pepper, chopped
~2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
~3 cups chicken broth
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp oregano
Several leaves of kale, chopped
1 pkg refrigerated tortellini

Brown the chicken sausage in a couple tablespoons of oil in the pot in which you will assemble the soup. Remove the sausage and slice. Saute the garlic, onion, and red pepper in the pot for ~10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, basil, oregano, and sliced sausage. Simmer for however long you want. Add the kale and tortellini. Serve when the tortellini is cooked.

My soup simmered for long enough that the tomatoes were all broken down and the onion was pretty translucent. The original recipe called for 1/2 c of white wine, which I would have added if I had some in the house. This would be easy to make vegetarian, too!


Some previous soups I have made.

A Winter of Soup

I like cooking a couple of dishes on the weekend that will get me through Wednesday. An easy way to do that is soup! I went through some of the other soup recipes I have posted and will definitely have to make them again this winter.

• Mushroom and Feta
• Peanut Soup
• Buttermilk Soup

Last week I made a delicious Roasted Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup.

Today was a fennel-pear soup based on this recipe.

I roasted the fennel and a couple cloves of garlic, and thawed some chicken stock and apple cider I had in the freezer.

 Blended, put some delicious moldy cheese on top, and ate with a homemade pretzel.

I mostly followed the link above for the recipe, but the details are....

1 fennel bulb quartered, plus stems
2 garlic cloves
1 shallot, chopped
2 pears, chopped
~1/2 c homemade chicken stock - if you don't want to use stock of some type, you will probably want to add other spices
~1 c apple cider
~2 c water
1 bay leaf
Olive and/or grape seed oil

Spray fennel and garlic with olive oil. Roast at 400 for about 25 minutes.
Saute shallot in grape seed oil until translucent. Chop the roasted fennel. Add all the fennel and garlic to the pot and saute briefly. Add pear, cover, and saute for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the liquid and bay leaf. Bring to a boil then turn temperature down and simmer ~15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the fennel stems. Blend the soup and serve! The soup has a very mild flavor, so either add more herbs to the soup or some garnish, like a cheese or dollop of sour cream.

Thanks

'Tis the weekend to be thankful, and I am doing my best. This weekend, I have been thankful for:

• Sleeping until 8 every day.
• A two hour conversation with one of my oldest friends. Neither of us realized how long we were on the phone. She called me back to point out that it felt just like 9th grade.
• The end to a sore throat that I was worried would turn into more.
• My coffee pot breaking so I could get a great deal on Black Friday for a new one.
• That my new coffee pot has a timer and you can pour a cup before it is done brewing.
• Time to do lots of cooking/baking.

Pumpkin oatmeal bars (that I have determined are healthy enough for breakfast)
Carrot macaroni and cheese with Cabot extra sharp cheddar
Roasted mushrooms with tarragon and balsamic vinegar (a repeat recipe that is easy and delicious)
Having a dozen home-made rolls all to myself
"Healthy" mozzerella sticks
A fresh batch of chicken stock made in the crockpot

• A turkey dinner from my neighbor. I even got the leg because no one else wanted it!
• A couple of runs. Have I mentioned I discovered I can run 3.3 miles and average less than 11 minute miles? I only fit a couple in a week because it gets dark so early, and I have realized what I have eaten in the past couple of hours TOTALLY determines how the run goes.
• Getting a Christmas tree cut and up all by myself.
• Finishing almost all my Christmas shopping.
• Almost finishing my Dad's 60th birthday present. (Poor guy has his birthday on Christmas Eve.)
• Getting some work done - a little lab work and some reading and writing and reviewing.

I think that about covers it...

Food success!

This was quite a successful food weekend, if I do say so myself. Thank you, Pinterest.

Even though I have a history of not likely beets, I thought I would try them again. My friend had some when I stayed with her this summer, and she LOVES them. I roasted them with some rosemary. Blech. What I did do was blend them up with plain yogurt and more rosemary and make Annie's Mac n' Cheese with the beet yogurt. (Inspired by this beet pasta recipe which I probably will not try now.) I took a picture after it had been in the fridge, mostly so you could see the color. It hid the beet taste for the most part!

Then I made buffalo cauliflower. This was a super-easy way to bread and oven cook something. Sadly, my blue cheese dressing is in the fridge at work.

I highly recommend the two breakfasts I made: Saturday I made pumpkin french toast. I also made breakfast for the week. Mini-frittatas with more of the roasted beets as mix-ins (also bacon, cheese curds, pepper from my porch, green onions, and cauliflower). I tried one and they are pretty good...except when you bite into a piece of beet.

Apparently I still do not like beets.

Fast and easy...in the kitchen...

...That's what she said.

Some people may be disappointed by the ACTUAL topic of this post: Food. Recipes.

Cooking is a good sign of my mental state, I think. It means I spend some time being creative in the kitchen (again, purely in a preparing-food-sort of way). It means I do not feel pressure of trying to get something done. When I feel pressure to get something done, I usually procrastinate by cleaning/laundry (as can be seen in this previous check list). But thanks to finishing a draft of my manuscript, I can spend some time in the kitchen!

Without further ado, I bring you 'Fast AND Easy' first.

This was brilliantly inspired for by my sister. Even though her kids will DEVOUR sushi and raw shell fish, they are surprisingly picky about every-day food. This, they were happy to eat.

Ramen makes a good base for dinner. In college, I would add in some broccoli when the Ramen was cooking, then add the flavor packet and cooked chicken to the drained noodles & broccoli. I can tell you that this suped-up version is way better than that.

Fast and Easy Ramen - 10 minutes, From the kitchen of Jenski's sister
(Scale up as needed)
Ingredients: Eggs, Ramen, premade coleslaw (or broccoli slaw!) mix
Whisk an egg
Cook Ramen per package instructions
After noodles cook 3 minutes, coax them aside and stir continuously as you add egg(s).
Add a handful of coleslaw mix from the grocery store and as much of the flavor packet as you would like.
Vary as needed/desired.
Serve up your egg noodle soup!

I had a red pepper that needs to be eaten, so I added some of that. I used half a flavor packet and added a couple spoonfuls of curry sauce, and only an egg white because I had eggs for breakfast. When my sister and her kids were here, we also added some sriracha to spice it up. The permutations are endless and easy!

                                               
Second, I bring you 'Easy'. I could add 'Healthy' to that too. The reasons I made this were three-fold:
1.) I have searched out tomatoes in a jar to no avail where I live. Sure, tomatoes come in a can. You know what else comes in canned tomatoes? BPA*. I am happy to have my own source of tomatoes with less BPA.
2.) My town has a pathetic excuse for a farmer's market. The man who tries to get vendors has a smoothie truck there every week. They FINALLY have other food and products, but he is the one manning the veggies for the farmers still! Because I had commented a couple of weeks in a row on the FB page, I felt I needed to go. Well I did. And then bought organic tomatoes for $12/pound. I appreciate fewer chemicals. I do not have an income that allows for costly tomatoes, no matter how delicious or chemical free. Therefore, the tomatoes must go to GOOOOOOOD use.
3.) Ridiculously easy tomato sauce in your crockpot.

Before

 After

My variations on Bean's recipe were few.

Crockpot tomato sauce
Chopped onions
Chopped tomatoes
Pressed garlic
Dried oregano (~1 tsp)
Dried basil (~1 tsp)
Dried thyme (~1/2 tsp)
Salt
Pepper
Sugar (~1 Tbsp, or I added agave syrup)
And I added some chopped carrot and olive oil too.

Mix. Cook on low in crock pot for 8 to 12 hours. I then blended it (which you probably would not need to do if you peeled the tomatoes). Blending it would probably let you hide other veggies in the sauce too though (more carrots than I added, pepper, a little squash...).

Made me wish I had a submersion blender. Then I put the sauce in glass jars with space at the top and stuck them in the freezer. If my sister-in-law and I lived closer together, I would have recruited her canning expertise.

FYI, SIL, At some point I envision a massive canning experience:
Make something in the crock pot overnight. Can in the morning. Set up the crock pot with something else. Can stuff like pickles throughout the day. Can the crock pot recipe #2 at night.

What else did I do between the end of work yesterday and lounging on my couch tonight? Walked 5.5 miles two times, tried indoor rock climbing for the first time, read a National Geographic, made the above recipes, ran some errands, and photographed the sunset. Again.

* If you have not heard of BPA, it is something used in plastics. It is also in those white cavity fillings and receipts. I could write a whole bunch about BPA. I did research on it before I started grad school, and can tell you that prenatal exposure affects mammary gland and neuro-endocrine development (otherwise known as boobs and brains). YOUR exposure to BPA can affect you, your children, and your grandchildren. I figure if I can minimize my exposure, might as well!

Pumpkin donut holes

These pumpkin donut holes were a serious pinterest success. I did not do the butter dip and roll in cinnamon sugar. If I were making them for others, I probably would.

My "garden"

I started off this spring with a mess of a porch. This is actually after I had picked some stuff up! There is a Christmas tree, a chair from my old neighbor with paint peeling off. Cushions. Bags of potting soil.

Inside the screen-in part, I finally got a table that I was putting together here. There was an ancient air conditioner that I finally sold on Craigslist. (I may be sorry about that, but I think I can get a more energy efficient one now.)

Then I potted some things super early in these great felt pots my parents gave me for my birthday. They are supposed to be good for root growth, because they breath. Who knows! There is cilantro, lettuce seeds you cannot see, a tomato plant and basil plants. (For the record, they were COMPLETELY full of soil when I planted them, and it has all settled down.)

 Then I added some (edible) flowers and a pepper plant and moved the plants outside.

I planted violas (Johnny jump-ups), and those flowers have a very mild sweet flavor. I also planted nasturtium, whose leaves and flowers have a spicy flavor. Adds a little color to a salad!

 Fortuitous shot when I was watering the pots and water got caught in the nasturtium leaf.

I even planted the rest of the cat grass that the cat does not eat. She has sniffed it a couple of times, and I have put some in her food, but she could not care less.

This is my garden just a few minutes ago! My tomato and basil plants are in the top, then a pepper and a viola, then cilantro, lettuce, and a nasturtium, and in the bottom, more nasturtium (and BOY are they growing!), two cucumbers that are finally growing, and violas.

I also had the other post-doc in the lab over and we did some painting of that yellow chair in the top photo and a table that was holding the AC up. At some point when I vacuum the screened in part and have it all set up with the chairs out, I will take another photo.

Hungry?

I have been trying to get lots done at work so I will be ready for a couple of undergrads to start after Memorial Day. I have been making time to decompress in various ways (like yoga!), but not making time to share some of the things I have been doing.

This is the food edition

The grad student in my lab and his wife had people over for Cinco de Mayo. I contributed margarita cupcakes with lime-tequila buttercream frosting. I made quite a mess with the frosting.

 I am not cupcake decorator, but they were cute-ish...and DELICIOUS.

I made popcorn and apparently shook the pot too vigorously because the top came off and I got popcorn all over the stove.

Other things I do not have pictures of, but let me tell you that pumpkin frozen yogurt (you do not need an ice cream maker!) and cooking a whole chicken in a crock pot are also delicious and easy. The frozen yogurt thing will likely be a regular thing this summer but in popsicle form.

Burned

I am almost burning my mouth right this second. I cannot wait for my dessert to cool down!

One of the benefits of being on your own and having a day off is that you can do whatever you want whenever you want. If you lose track of time, no one complains. Here on the western side of the time zone, there was still visible light on the horizon at 9 p.m. Summer screws me up because there are no good cues for when I should go to bed. I realized I was really hungry about two o'clock this afternoon and had not had lunch. When 7:30 rolled around, but the sun was out, I realized I had not thought about dinner. So I improvised again.

I had picked up some kale to make kale chips for a snack while I did work. Instead, I had them for dinner. You just wash and tear up the kale. Spread it on a cookie sheet. Spray with oil and sprinkle something on it if you want, and bake at 350 to 375 for 15 to 20 minutes (depends on your oven, but keep an eye on them). The first time I made them I did plain olive oil and salt. This time, I did chipotle olive oil. For dipping, I mixed up some Greek yogurt and dill seasoning mix.

I still have phyllo, so of course I cannot let it go to waste! I layered the phyllo, spraying in between with plain olive oil. Then scooped some Nutella on, added an over-ripe banana, honey, walnuts, marshmallows, and some cinnamon and nutmeg.

 Then I stuck it in the oven at 375 for maybe 30 minutes.

I think I could have used less phyllo, but it is still delicious. Look out for the bubbling sugary goodness that spills out of the phyllo pocket if you try this at home. Oh. And I forgot to add the raspberries and chocolate chips I had taken out of the freezer for the little banana packet. Next time.

Improvise

If you ever read my "recipes", I rarely follow recipes to a T. I picked up some phyllo sheets recently to make this brie and phyllo recipe that I pinned. Only, apparently for that recipe they used preformed phyllo cups. I have a couple of recipes from my mom and sister with phyllo sheets.

Let me cut to the chase: I do not understand phyllo. I had phyllo sheets and makings for a salad in the fridge. I was home early, went for a run, and did not want a salad. I (half) thawed some chicken and sliced it in half (because it was not thawed enough to pound flat). Sauteed up some mushrooms, onion, seasoned with tarragon, salt, and pepper. Splashed a healthy amount of white wine in there. Decided to add some frozen carrots (sliced mixed carrots from TJ's). I then pulled out some phyllo sheets and sprayed some delicious olive oil in between the sheets every couple of sheets, split the chicken and veggies between them, and added some slices of brie (rind on). I folded up the phyllo and put it seam down on a baking stone. Cooked it about 40 minutes at 350 degrees and ended up with this deliciousness.

 The best part was countless layers of crispy phyllo.

Not just another day

Make this.

I took the second picture, then ate the cake, then found that the photo was blurry. Click on the link if you want to see a more attractive photo of this microwave nutella cake. 5 minutes start to finish. Great dessert to my apple cinnamon white cheddar and ham panini Easter supper.

It was a long and rewarding day, so having a couple of beers with my cat and an easy dinner, plus a 20 minute nap was fine with me!

I played hand bells at church. Many people came up to me after saying I looked like a pro. Remember, I just officially joined the church last week. I did readily admit that I had played bells before. I think the church is happy to see young(er) members who are involved.

Then I had volunteered to work for a 2.5 hour shift at a local food kitchen, figuring I would head home and do work after. Only they were short staffed for the second shift when they were actually serving dinner. So I was on my feet for almost 5 hours doing cooking and prep and serving and cleaning. It was great though, and I had no other commitment.

I made my grandmother's day by calling her on Easter on my way home. I do not know why I don not call more often because it is only a 5 minute conversation.

If Easter or Passover are you thing, I hope they have been wonderful. I think it is officially spring now.